Area woman loses three loved ones to gun violence

Video: Extended interview with Tina Rothgeb

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) "Get your kids, keep them close.  Don't let them get involved in the streets."  That's the advice Tina Rothgeb  has for other parents as she deals with what she calls her worst nightmare.

Rothgeb, 42, is struggling to cope with the loss of a boyfriend, son, and nephew.  In a little more than a month all three were shot to death in Fort Wayne.

On December 7 police said someone shot her son Paul Ward and nephew Jeremy Walker in a car in the 700 block of West Milton Street.  Both were killed.  The only person she felt she could truly grieve with was her boyfriend of eight years, Ryan Turner.
    
"Ryan, he was my rock," Rothgeb said.

Friday, Turner was consoling her at a park with words from the Bible.  Unthinkably, that would be the last time he would help her cope.
    
"Him reading the Bible to me Friday just really made me have more faith and he gave me some hope," Rothgeb said.  "Then they call and tell me that he's passed away and I'm like, I just can't believe it."

 On January 11, police say Turner showed up at the Sunoco gas station at Hanna and Lewis with gunshot wounds.  Turner, 45, had entered a gas station a little after 9:00 p.m. that day and asked the clerk for help. He died in the hospital that night.

The news not only crippled Rothgeb with grief, but she's struggling to help her grandkids understand.

"[I] just told her, her dad was an angel December 7," Rothgeb said with tears in her eyes.  "Now I'm telling her, her pawpaw is an angel January 11."

Her grief has now been coupled with fear, as police haven't caught a suspect in either tragedy.
    
"Everywhere I go, I look at people and think, 'Did you do it? Did you shoot my son?  Did you shoot Ryan?'" Rothgeb said.

Rothgeb says each of her loved ones killed has some form of criminal record.

The 42-year-old has two other sons and several grandchildren.  She said her family helps her keep going.